Water retention

If the soil has dried out too much, it can become "hydro-phobic", meaning water just runs straight through rather than being absorbed. Best solution is to water your plants in small amounts over many hours. That is, for example, if you are giving 2 litres of water, give 250ml, wait an hour, give another 250ml, wait an hour or two, then give another 250ml, wait another hour or two then give another 250ml.....etc, etc. This way each time you water, the soil will "plump up" slightly, meaning each subsequent time you water, a bit more gets absorbed, rather than just running straight through the pot.......you basically have to re-hydrate your soil. It may take 2-3 goes of this water/wait/water/wait routine, but in my experience it will work. Use plain water and not fertilizers until the soil gets properly moistened again. The only other way to cure this issue, is to stand your pots in a bucket half full of water for a couple of hours, so that the pots suck up the water from the bottom and re-hydrate that way, but this can be difficult to achieve, so that is why the water/wait/water/wait method is a good alternative.